Mouli Cohen on Google's Push into the Travel Industry

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Mouli Cohen Comments on Google's latest prospect for acquisition.

Santa Ana, CA (PRWEB)July 15, 2010

Living up to its juggernaut status, Google Inc., is set to acquire yet another company. This time, it’s a flight information software company called ITA Software Inc. Founded by graduates from MIT, the company develops software that stores, calculates, and distributes seat availability and flight schedule data at a high capacity. It caters to travel distributors such as FareCompare and Rearden. Its $700 million price tag makes it Google's fourth-largest acquisition ever.

Mouli Cohen, a technology enthusiast, weighs in on Google's push into the travel industry.

ITA Software, which also drew interest from online travel websites such as Expedia Inc., Kayak.com, Travelport LP and Amadeus SA, helps airlines and travel distributors to organize trip-related data such as airfare pricing, flight schedules and ticket availability. Google won the bid war in the end, and with this technology, the search engine giant will be able to help travelers find the best deals on their tickets.

On the other hand, an excited community of loyal Google fans can't wait to see what Google has up its sleeves. "These are the people who gave us Google Maps, Google Docs and Android," Mr. Cohen reminds us. "ITA is currently developing a new reservation management system entirely from the ground up," says Mr. Cohen. "With this technology, they'll have the potential to change the entire experience of making flight reservations. The new system could be as common for making travel plans as using YouTube is for streaming video."

Google, which was founded in 1998, has been on a spree of acquisitions since 2001 when it began to accumulate a number of small venture capital companies. In 2004, Google bought the company responsible for creating Earth Viewer, which it would later transform into the critically acclaimed service called Google Earth. Fans are hoping that Google can do something just as awesome with ITA.

A hint of support to this claim can be found in Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt's statement to The Wall Street Journal, saying, "I think it's unlikely that anything we do (with ITA's technology) will look very much like what's available today."

About Mouli Cohen
Mr. Cohen is a successful entrepreneur who has founded and developed successful ventures in the biotechnology, high technology, digital media and entertainment sectors. He has balanced his success in business with philanthropic activities. Over the years he has supported children's charities, food programs, medical research, and the arts as well as education projects both in the US and abroad.